Description
- Abstract:
- The main goal of this project is to examine the morphological characteristics on PMMA/PCL film casts and double walled microspheres formed in different ratios and concentrations. Double-walled microspheres are developed with two distinct layers of different polymers primarily to design a controlled drug delivery system utilizing a phenomenon called phase separation. There were many prior works done on formation of double wall microspheres with a wide range of different polymers and their drug encapsulation efficiency and release studies. Many of these investigations demonstrated that having an extra polymeric layer helps protect the encapsulated substances and allows controlled release and longer retention within the body. However, there had not been many studies on how different ratios of two polymers could influence the formation of double wall microspheres and specifically, their internal morphologies. In the work presented here, PMMA/PCL double wall microspheres were formed using 1-step solvent evaporation process, which involves emulsification theory and phase separation phenomenon. In this thesis, how blends of different PMMA:PCL phase separate in the forms of film casts and microspheres would be addressed by investigating them with cross-polarized light, which helps distinguish the amorphous and the crystalline structures. Overall, depending on the polymer weight/volume concentrations (% w/v) and the ratios of the two polymers, internal morphologies of the film casts and the microspheres seem to differ. Yet, in all PMMA:PCL ratios, phase separation was observed in some degrees with PMMA:PCL = 1:1 microspheres exhibiting a few definite double walls. Understanding these morphological differences induced by different ratios of PMMA and PCL may be one of the key parameters in optimizing and forming efficient double wall microspheres to carry drug, gene, and/or therapeutic molecules to the target site without degradation prior to reaching the target site.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Sc. M.)--Brown University, 2019
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All rights reserved. Collection is open to the Brown community for research.
Citation
Kim, Min Sun,
"Phase Separation Phenomenon and Morphological Characteristics of PMMA/PCL Double Wall Microspheres"
(2019).
Biomedical Engineering Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/2szk-n896
Relations
Collection:
-
Biomedical Engineering Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Biomedical Engineering department....